Last time we started a study of the doctrine of freedom. John 8:32: Gal 5:1; We noted that positive volition to any aspect of God's Word creates freedom because God imputes grace through the divine decree to positive volition wherever it is found.
Positive volition to Divine Establishment provides for temporal human freedom, positive volition toward the Gospel creates spiritual freedom and positive volition to Bible Doctrine creates experiential spiritual freedom.
We noted that freedom requires positive volition to legitimate authority that God's Word defines and that individual freedom and authority can only coexist on the basis of integrity.
In any given generation of a nation freedom depends on the virtue and values possessed by the population of that nation.
That is why at the close of the constitutional convention in 1787 Ben Franklin said "We have a republic if you can keep it." It still remains in doubt that we can keep it.
We see from this that freedom is established on morality and virtue from God's Word. Morality and virtue are another sine que non of Freedom.
This is why freedom in our nation is at risk at this time. The loss of morality and virtue by a significant number of the citizenry is destroying freedom established by our founders and paid for by the blood of our soldiers.
The freedom we have enjoyed in our country cannot be maintained if the citizens reject the integrity that comes from morality and virtue from God's Word.
What is being pejoratively described as "white privilege" in our country today is actually the morality and virtue and blessing from God that accrue to those who honor and obey God's authority regarding divine establishment from the divine decree.
Those who ridicule and reject divine establishment are the enemies of God. Rom 13:1-4; Since morality and virtue are a sine que non of Freedom we will now discuss the doctrines of morality and virtue.
The believer must learn to distinguish between morality that applies to both believer and unbeliever and the spiritual life or spirituality that only belongs to the believer in Jesus Christ while at the same time understanding the relationship between spirituality and morality as separate facets of the believer's spiritual life.
Remember the principle that the moral person may or may not be spiritual but the spiritual person is always moral. 1John 5:18; Morality is not the spiritual life but it is always produced by the spiritual life. Gal 5:22-23;
This is why the law is for the unbeliever. 1Tim 1:9-10; Everyone is born unrighteous. Rom 3:9-20; and the only way out of that position is to believe in Jesus Christ.
God imputes His righteousness to everyone who is born again at the moment they believe in Jesus Christ. This means that every believer is positionally righteousness. 2Cor 5:21; so under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit the believer's conduct supersedes the righteousness required by the law. Rom 10:4; Titus 2:11-12;
Very few people understand this because they are taught that morality is spirituality. Religion teaches that morality is spirituality because religion does not understand spirituality so it cannot teach spirituality. 1Cor 2:14;
Only God the Holy Spirit and God's Word can teach spirituality. John 16:8-11;
Spirituality includes morality but goes way beyond it because the mandate of spirituality is Integrity Love. John 13:34-35;